That''s a good observation, felonius. Players wanted save and load at any time, which forced the designers to make the games harder, then the players demanded QUICK save/load, which forced the designers to make the games yet HARDER. I love vicious cycles.
Another example of a game that avoids this is Zelda. You can save anywhere, technically, but when you load, you''re forced to go back to a certain point. This forces the player to simply become good at getting from point A to point B with the least possible damage. And, here''s my favourite part, it''s possible to kill the end guys, the first time through, without dying yourself! Wow! What a concept. This is something I really miss in most new games. The bosses are challenging yet not impossible. They require more strategy and tactics (and a small amount of twitch reactions) to beat. If I''m not mistaken, each boss takes roughly the same number of hits to kill, they just all have different attacks and behaviours, making each one a truely new and interesting experience. You don''t have to HIT them more, it''s just harder to get those hits in.
I recommend checking Zelda out, for those of you that haven''t before. Either try Zelda 3: Link to the Past for the SNES, or Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64. The 64 version is far superior (imho), but both are good examples of what I''m talking about.

Morbo